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Flu-wary telecommuters may clog Web networks, GAO says By Cecilia Kang Wednesday, October 28, 2009 As the spread of the H1N1 flu keeps more Americans away from work and school, a federal report warns that all those people logging on to the Web from home could overwhelm Internet networks. The Government Accountability Office reported earlier this week that if the flu reaches a pandemic, a surge in telecommuting and children accessing video files and games at home could bog down local networks. And if that were to happen, it is not clear whether the federal government is prepared to deal...

But it’s more than the next Republican administration the networks need to worry about now. And it’s all very well to praise their noble or altruistic solidarity–it may be worth praising at that. But the networks ultimately know that it boils down to which side their bread is buttered on. The larger truth is that they are finally figuring out just what is really happening here. And they’re not liking it.

WASHINGTON, Oct. 19, 2009 – Afghan and international security forces killed multiple militants and detained several suspects in operations in Afghanistan over the past four days, military officials reported. A combined security force in Khowst detained several suspected militants today after searching a compound in the province’s Sabari district, north of Khowst City. Intelligence reports indicated militant activity there. The compound is known to be used by a Haqqani terrorist network facilitator and his element, believed to be responsible for funding and supplying weapons and homemade bomb materials to other militant elements in the region. The force searched the compound...

If you're new to social media, it can be extremely overwhelming. While social media courses are available, all it really takes is trial and error on your part in order to learn the basics. For example, a lot of people don't know how important it is to have separate personal and business accounts for Twitter, Facebook and Myspace. Customers and future clients do not want to hear about where you went to eat for lunch or your religious or political views. Unless you are an expert columnist on religion or politics, people don't care to see it. Plus, you could...

http://www.abc.com and http://www.cbs.com all show the networks are bowing their knees to their Messiah Hussein. Only at http://www.fox.com shows an entertainment show.

In the days before President Obama's last news conference, as the networks weighed whether to give up a chunk of their precious prime time, Rahm Emanuel went straight to the top. Rather than calling ABC, the White House chief of staff phoned Bob Iger, chief executive of parent company Disney. Instead of contacting NBC, Emanuel went to Jeffrey Immelt, the chief executive of General Electric. He also spoke with Les Moonves, the chief executive of CBS Corp., the company spun off from Viacom. Whether this amounted to undue pressure or plain old Chicago arm-twisting, Emanuel got results: the fourth hour...

Television networks planning Jackson coverage NEW YORK (AP) -- NBC executives changed their minds Sunday and decided to join other networks that will televise Michael Jackson's memorial service live this week. NBC joins ABC, CNN, MSNBC and E! Entertainment in offering the ceremony live. It's set for 10 a.m. PDT at Los Angeles' Staples Center. NBC had initially planned only a one-hour prime-time special on Tuesday night, but said Sunday it would also cover the event live. It was not immediately clear who would anchor. Charles Gibson will anchor coverage for ABC, which is setting aside its typical daytime programming....

Spot TV in the top 100 markets cratered The Television Bureau of Advertising on Friday released its broadcast TV crunch of the TNS Media Intelligence ad spending estimates put out earlier in the week. Total broadcast TV, including spot TV, syndication and network TV, dropped 11.9% to $10.5 billion in first quarter. The decline was driven by spot TV in the top 100 markets which cratered, falling 27.6% to $2.89 billion. In stark contrast, network TV dipped 4.8% to $6.5 billion, while syndication inched up 0.2% to nearly $1.1 billion. Spending in nine of local broadcast TV's top 10 ad...

Executives at the Big Four broadcast networks, upset that President Barack Obama has cumulatively cost them more than $30 million in revenue from preempted prime-time programming for three press conferences, say getting advertisers to sponsor future press events as a way to recoup lost revenue isn’t a viable option. After Fox balked at airing Obama in prime time on April 29, other nets joined in, saying they would consider the same action going forward depending on the event’s relevance. Industry observers wondered why networks couldn’t just get advertiser sponsors. Some suggested an ad prior to the conference and one at...

According to a TVNewser tipster, ABC News didn't feed "World News" to its West Coast affiliates Saturday evening as scheduled. The tipster writes, "Affiliates were left scrambling to fill; KGO-TV (San Francisco) went to 'Assignment 7' after five minutes of dead air accompanied by their legal ID slide." The image (right) is from 5:31pmPT on KOMO-TV in Seattle. The color bars and tone stayed up for more than three minutes. A "Technical Difficulties" slate went up for another six minutes. At 5:39pm, the station began airing "Wheel of Fortune." Another tipster surmises, "The SD feeds were discontinued Tuesday. I guess...

7TH UPDATE: ABC has officially picked up Jerry Bruckheimer's pilot THE FORGOTTEN to series. 6TH UPDATE: I'm told ABC just picked up THE MIDDLE with a 13 episode order. The pilot starring Patricia Heaton. Same with the pilot that Kelsey Grammar was exec-producing and starring in, AWESOME HANK which ABC also picked up. 5TH UPDATE: I just heard that ABC offered to pick up 6 episodes of V -- but Warner Bros has not accepted. ABC also has ordered the hour-long HAPPY TOWN. 4TH UPDATE: ABC has officially renewed Better Off Ted. 3RD UPDATE: I've just learned that ABC has...

After losing some $30 million from advertisers while they covered President Obama's three primetime news conferences in recent months, the major television networks are likely to follow Fox's lead and turn down the White House when it asks them to preempt a primetime time period any time soon, the Hollywood Reporter reported today (Friday), citing several unnamed network executives. "We will continue to make our decisions on White House requests on a case-by-case basis, but the Fox decision gives us cover to reject a request if we feel that there is no urgent breaking news that is going to be...

According to a report from THR.COM TELEVISION, the broadcast networks are considering asking President Obama to curtail prime-time appearances. No change of heart ideologically, mind you; the network execs are reported to be “seething” that Obama “has cost them about $30 million in cumulative ad revenue this year with his three primetime news conference pre-emptions.”

NBC and ABC on Tuesday night marked President Barack Obama's first 50 days -- not by pointing out all his unfilled executive positions, failed nominations or the long wait for the stimulus spending in the “stimulus” bill -- but by heralding his “whirlwind” of action and “whirling dervish of activity,” though both noted criticism that the administration is trying to do too much. “The President's first seven weeks have been a whirlwind with often dramatic movement in all directions, on all fronts. The economy, health care, two wars and today education reform,” NBC anchor Brian Williams breathlessly announced. Noting...

Viewers may be consuming more content overall, but live ratings and the commercial ratings that form the currency of the business continue to fall at the broadcast networks. Live viewing at CBS, Fox, NBC, My Network TV and The CW was down 7-10% through mid-January, while C3 numbers were down 5-8%, according to a report from Los Angeles based ad agency RPA While broadcast viewership was under siege before last year’s writer’s strike, RPA notes this year’s numbers were hurt by fewer new shows, shows that wouldn’t have normally returned, and the historic election cycle. In the 18-49 year old...

In his Saturday remarks during his campaign train ride, President-elect Barack Obama issued some soaring rhetoric about the state of the country today. At least the Old Media thought it was soaring rhetoric, anyway. Typically, the media was overawed by his mellifluous tones, of course. But during these remarks in Baltimore Obama made a startling suggestion. He said we need a "new Declaration of Independence." Apparently the original one isn't good enough for the new president, but it also seems a silly rhetorical flourish. After all, what is it that we are declaring independence from this time? Recall that the...

Battered by a one-two punch of declining readership and ad pages, Newsweek magazine is getting an extreme makeover this year that will include a large circulation reduction, deep cuts in operating costs, and a new effort to attract advertisers by concentrating on an elite audience. According to The New York Times, executives at Newsweek say the retooled magazine will focus on being a "thought leader" that focuses on telling readers how to think about news, rather than telling people what happened in the last week. The plan, similar to the editorial outlook espoused by The Economist magazine, is aimed at...

NEW YORK - The Al Jazeera Network plans to announce on Thursday that it has signed a deal to run its news on Worldfocus, a syndicated nightly news program produced in New York and distributed throughout the United States. The deal would help the international news network, one of the top services in the Arabic-speaking world, broaden its reach in the United States, where it so far has been available to only a limited audience. Worldfocus, hosted by former NBC News correspondent Martin Savidge, is produced by New York City public broadcaster WLIW and syndicated to a number of Public...

Marathon coverage plans in the works D.C. and the nets are gearing up for Tuesday's inauguration. Come Sunday, the cable news networks -- and plenty of other outlets -- will kick off a 72-hour marathon of Barack Obama coverage and programming tied to Tuesday's inauguration of the nation's 44th commander-in-chief. From channels around the world to such Internet vidcasters as Hulu to the blogger brigade, the inaugural and related events will generate more video footage and reportage than ever before. "This year, the inaugural (schedule) is bigger and more complex and vast than I've ever seen it," said David Bohrman,...

Many Americans seem to think the War on Terror is a synonym for “War on Al-Qaeda,” but Al-Qaeda is just one small, dying portion of the entire radical Islamic movement that seeks to enslave the Muslim community to its ideology and attack the United States. Al-Qaeda, Hamas, and virtually every terrorist organization has its roots in the Muslim Brotherhood, which can be said to be the “mother” that gave birth to today’s terrorists.... ...Well, the government should be aware of them, since several of them have been consulted by various government agencies and sometimes have been used for “sensitivity training”...

WASHINGTON, Jan. 9, 2009 – Coalition forces killed 37 armed militants and captured four others in operations targeting bomb networks in Afghanistan’s Zabol and Laghman provinces in recent days, military officials reported. Coalition forces killed 32 armed insurgents, including a woman, detained one suspected militant and destroyed a cache of weapons, explosives and roadside-bomb materials during an operation in Laghman province’s Alishang district. After the operation, local Afghan officials met with coalition forces and confirmed that all 32 killed were hostile militants. An Afghan governor approved a radio announcement stating these facts. “We stand by our initial news release, that...

Quote of the Year Co-anchor Chris Matthews: “I have to tell you, you know, it’s part of reporting this case, this election, the feeling most people get when they hear Barack Obama’s speech. My — I felt this thrill going up my leg. I mean, I don’t have that too often. ”Co-anchor Keith Olbermann: “Steady.”

The celebrated openness of the Internet -- network providers are not supposed to give preferential treatment to any traffic -- is quietly losing powerful defenders. Google Inc. has approached major cable and phone companies that carry Internet traffic with a proposal to create a fast lane for its own content, according to documents reviewed by The Wall Street Journal. Google has traditionally been one of the loudest advocates of equal network access for all content providers. At risk is a principle known as network neutrality: Cable and phone companies that operate the data pipelines are supposed to treat all traffic...

According to some media observers, interim “Meet the Press� host Tom Brokaw has been showcasing – reluctantly, as he clearly covets a return to network news - candidates for the late Tim Russert's media chair. Witness the endless panels of NBC news correspondents every Sunday. Who's next? Are we really ready for blabber-wocky Chris Matthews - maybe even sports-hack turned petulant pol-wonk Keith Olbermann? Can any of the contenders for Russert's job be a new beacon for integrity and objectivity at NBC News?In this same vein, recall the recent suggestions by Democratic senators Clinton, Boxer and Feinstein that  - because...

Digital-video recorder company TiVo Inc. (TIVO) and online movie rental service Netflix Inc. (NFLX) said Thursday they are teaming up to provide Netflix and some TiVo subscribers with the ability to have thousands of movies and TV episodes instantly streamed from Netflix directly to their TVs. The two companies said they are initiating a test of the new capability Thursday in several thousand U.S. households and expect it to be broadly available in early December.

After his own personal mini-meltdown caused him to sell some of his shareholdings in CBS and Viacom, Sumner Redstone said this week that the situation is under control and that he won't be selling any more. Meanwhile, media wags are still handicapping whether one or both of the companies he controls might end up in play. But whatever happens next, Redstone's travails are a clear reminder of how a media mogul's controlling stake in his companies can become bad for business, and for stockholders, particularly when there are two classes of shares involved. Given Redstone's singular pride of ownership in...

NEW YORK - Barack Obama's tendency through the Democratic primaries to perform better in exit polls than he actually does at the ballot box has some media organizations nervous heading into Election Night. Television networks want to avoid having their performance become an issue for the third straight presidential election. Their political experts hope that experience gained during the primaries will help things run smoothly Nov. 4. ABC, CBS, NBC, CNN, Fox News Channel and The Associated Press pool resources to conduct exit polls in select precincts, hoping to glean information about why people vote the way they do and...

102 Minutes that Changed America trails only Life After People for The History Channel audience. By Marisa Guthrie -- Broadcasting & Cable, 9/15/2008 2:15:00 PM The History Channel scored its second-largest audience ever with Sept. 11 anniversary special 102 Minutes that Changed America. 102 Minutes that Changed America The documentary -- which aired commercial-free on the seventh anniversary of the terrorist attacks on New York and Washington, D.C. -- was watched by 5.2 million people, according to Nielsen, including 2.9 million viewers in the network's sales demographic of 25- to 54-year-olds. "We are proud and overwhelmed with the reaction to...

When MSNBC announced the other day that Keith Olbermann and Chris Matthews were being replaced as co-anchors of the cable network's nightly political broadcast, the news was widely taken as evidence that the grownups at the parent network are looking to salvage NBC News' reputation for balance. And who can doubt that Tom Brokaw and Brian Williams--who've had to squirm before the likes of Jon Stewart, pretending to be something other than appalled by the nightly goings-on at MSNBC--had a major hand in this move? snip Indeed, this was just the most recent signal that the network, having long refused...

More Americans than ever are watching TV online, about a fifth, twice the number two years ago, despite the fact that the viewing experience doesn't come close to that of watching on a TV screen. Just why is interesting. As it turns out, avoiding commercials plays only a minor role, and it's actually less a factor than it was two years ago. The big reason people watch TV online is the flexibility it affords. A study by the Conference Board, the New York research outfit, reports that 55.4 percent of respondents said they watched TV online so they can see...

Did anyone else see the Letterman Show tonight, Friday 8/15: when actor Ben Kingsley walked out to great applause, he walked up to Dave Letterman and said "God Bless American Enthusiasm!" and then repeated himself, "God Bless American enthusiasm!" Except CBS simply filtered out the word "God." Both times. Watching closely, I know I saw Kingsley's lips form the word "God" both times, his lips were clearly moving before I heard "...Bless American enthusiasm!" I thought I was imagining things, but it happened a second time!

CNN announced on Tuesday that it would assign journalists to 10 cities across the United States, a move that would double the number of domestic cities where the cable news network has outposts. But in a reflection of the way television networks are reinventing the way they gather news, the journalists will not work from expensive bureaus — rather, they will borrow office space from local news organizations and use laptops to file articles for the Internet and TV. When news happens, they will use Internet connections and cellphone cameras to report live. “We are harnessing technology that enables us...

Security researcher and author Kris Kaspersky plans to demonstrate how an attacker can target flaws in Intel's microprocessors to remotely attack a computer using JavaScript or TCP/IP packets, regardless of what operating system the computer is running. Kaspersky will demonstrate how such an attack can be made in a presentation at the upcoming Hack In The Box (HITB) Security Conference in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, during October. The proof-of-concept attacks will show how processor bugs, called errata, can be exploited using certain instruction sequences and a knowledge of how Java compilers work, allowing an attacker to take control of the...

Broadcast TV networks' upfront advertising sales will be down this year, posting a drop of between 2% and 14%, a leading Wall Street analyst said. A "material decline is probable given ratings declines, the disruption in the development cycle due to the recent writers' strike and economic woes," Jessica Reif Cohen of Merrill Lynch said in a report published yesterday. Next week, the broadcast networks will meet with advertisers, presenting their fall schedules in what are expected to be less lavish circumstances than in past years. Production disruptions from the 100-day Writers Guild of America strike, as well as uncertainty...

AS REAL-LIFE broadcasters get set to announce their fall schedules next week in New York, they're still scratching their way out of a trench, otherwise known as the worst season in the history of the network TV business. Not a single one of the new fall series broke through to a big audience, even the ones that looked can't-fail on paper, such as ABC's spinoff "Private Practice" and NBC's now-dead revival of "Bionic Woman." Every network except Fox has posted significant ratings declines for the season. Even as existing series have gradually returned from the three-month writers strike, viewers have,...

Many top shows are back but ratings continue to fall By Toni Fitzgerald Apr 30, 2008 The writers’ strike is long over, but broadcast ratings have yet to return to their pre-strike levels. A number of shows have fallen to season or series lows following their return after the strike, and most are down from last fall. It’s a pattern seen across every network as the May sweeps kick off. Last week ABC’s “Grey’s Anatomy” and “Ugly Betty” posted their second-lowest ratings in adults 18-49, averaging a 6.5 and 2.5, respectively, in their first original outings since January. Fox’s “American...

MARINE CORPS BASE HAWAII, April 7, 2008 – Dealing with a loved one’s deployment can be difficult. But for Marine families based thousands of miles from home, the challenges might seem even more daunting if not for an active family support network in place to help them. Carrie Heironimus, wife of Navy Lt. Brandon Heironimus, right, gets information about family-support programs at a table set up in Marine Corps Base Hawaii’s base exchange from Brenda Hawkins, left, administrative assistant for the Marine Corps Family Team Building program, and Cheryl Roy, center, the base’s readiness and deployment support trainer. Photo...

For decades, local TV stations in cities like Baltimore were cash cows for the companies that owned them. Even though one or two stations with the most popular anchors often came to dominate each market, everybody made money. Local TV was that surefire a business - even for last-place and poorly managed stations. But not today. More and more, the dominant story line for local TV news is one filled with talk of cutbacks, layoffs, lowered expectations and an urgent need to find new ways of doing business and winning viewers. This week, CBS announced a series of layoffs at...

There were deep cuts at ABC News in New York this week as more than 20 employees in the finance and operations departments were informed that their jobs were being eliminated as part of an ongoing restructuring project that began last spring. pink slip “This new structure will streamline how we receive our finance and operations support. It will also make that support more directly responsible to those at ABC News who depend on it the most. And it should move us forward faster and more effectively into the evolving digital world,” ABC News president David Westin said in an...

My colleague Brent Baker has painstakingly documented how the big three broadcast networks have gone out of their way to avoid labeling scandal-scarred New York Governor Eliot Spitzer as a “Democrat.” An examination of the fifteen ABC, CBS and NBC morning and evening news shows through Wednesday night finds Spitzer was called a Democrat just 20% of the time — twice on CBS, once on ABC, and never on NBC. So how do the networks treat Republicans involved in sex scandals? Always, always as Republicans, and as problems for their party. Last July, Louisiana Senator David Vitter’s name surfaced in...

With voters turning out in record numbers for the presidential primaries and two Democrats still locked in a tight race for the nomination, cable news networks have seen their ratings soar over the past six months. And it's coming as broadcast networks slip. Through the beginning of March, the most recent numbers available, ratings for the network nightly newscasts are all down year to year among the key adult demographics. But even more worrisome for the networks, the sharpest declines have been among the very adults 18-34 who account for some of cable news' biggest gains since the primary season...

It’s official: the networks no longer cover news, they slap it onto the bottom edge of their regular programming like Post-it notes. There were crawls (“Huckabee drops out”) and brief updates, but viewers who wanted to immerse themselves in the speculation and suspense — and Tuesday night was arguably a more critical and dramatic election than Super Tuesday — were relegated to cable news. Not that CNN and its brethren did a bad job. It’s just that Tuesday night’s showdown between Senators Barack Obama and Hillary Rodham Clinton was momentous. Not having a prime-time election report on ABC, CBS or...

After months of improving security in Iraq, the big network morning shows on Friday cited one horrific suicide bombing as proof that “mayhem and misery are back in Baghdad,” as CBS correspondent Mark Strassmann put it. But over the last five months, the broadcast networks have consistently reduced their coverage of Iraq, as if the story of American success in Iraq is less worthy of attention than their old mantra of American failure in Iraq. Media Research Center analysts tracked all coverage of the Iraq war on the ABC, CBS and NBC evening newscasts from September 1 through January 31,...

Exclusive: After Obama Complaints, CNN Bans James Carville And Paul Begala From Appearing As Analysts Until Dem Primary Is Settled January 24, 2008 -- 7:11 PM EST

The slow but steady erosion in the power of primetime television is about to change the fundamental structure and financial clout of broadcast TV's perennial cash cow, warn advertisers, which pump more than $9 billion a year into the three-hour nightly window. With its waning audience, lack of a breakout hit in two seasons and with the writers' strike about to render the TV landscape barren of any new scripted shows, media planners and ad buyers are predicting: * The decades-long three-hour primetime window could shrink by one-third to just two hours a night. * The growth of less-expensive reality...

Study says 38.4 million will tune in via Internet Some 38.4 million homes worldwide will receive TV via the Internet by 2012, according to research by Informa Telecoms and Media. “In the shorter term we are forecasting 10.6 million IPTV households by the end of 2007, double the 2006 figure,” said Adam Thomas, Informa media research manager. “Much of the growth has come from service launches by European telcos.” Last year IPTV worldwide generated revenues from subscriptions and VOD of less than $1.5 billion. By 2012 this figure is forecast to reach $14.7 billion.

Striking screenwriters on Thursday night dismissed a new set of proposals from producers as “a massive rollback,” and called on their members to continue their walkout with fresh resolve despite a plan to continue talks on Tuesday. In a move to end a nearly four-week-old strike by writers, Hollywood’s studios and networks — represented by the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers — earlier in the day offered a new package of proposals that includes a revised offer for payments related to movies and shows distributed via new media. In a statement, producers said the new package, styled a...

WASHINGTON, Nov. 9, 2007 – Coalition forces wounded one suspected terrorist and detained 19 others today during operations to disrupt foreign terrorist networks in central Iraq. -- Southeast of Fallujah, coalition forces targeted an associate of an al Qaeda network responsible for insurgent activities in the region, including car-bomb and improvised-explosive-device attacks. As coalition forces arrived at the target building, they were engaged by two armed men. The ground force engaged and wounded one of the men. The second surrendered. -- Coalition forces conducted three coordinated operations south of Samarra targeting associates of an al Qaeda senior leader involved in...

Television's top writer-producers threw their collective weight behind the striking Writers Guild of America on Wednesday in a move that could accelerate the disappearance of some of the nation's most popular prime-time shows, including "Desperate Housewives," "Lost" and "The Office." In staging a very public rally in front of Walt Disney Studios in Burbank, the 100 or so writer-producers of some of TV's highest-rated programs ratcheted up the pressure on the studios and producers who only a day before had threatened to withdraw scores of lucrative contracts with writers. The support from the top was crucial since these writer-producers --...

WASHINGTON, Nov. 7, 2007 – Coalition forces killed three terrorists and detained nine suspects today during operations to disrupt al Qaeda and foreign terrorist networks in central and northern Iraq. During an operation west of Abu Ghraib, coalition forces targeted an alleged associate of several senior terrorist leaders in Kirkuk. Reports also indicate the targeted individual has information about foreign terrorists in the area. As the force secured the target, several men, one of whom was armed, maneuvered toward them. The suspected terrorists did not comply with the force’s instructions. The armed men continued to maneuver toward coalition troops, who...